THORSBY, AB. JANUARY 17, 2014- Nhung Tran-Davies, has started up a math petition to change the math curriculum for children. She has done so to help all kids, but also because her daughter Kenya, 8, was struggling in with discovery math. Shaughn Butts/Edmonton Journal

The Great Canadian Math Debate, Pt. 15: Where are the thousands of parents who support discovery math?

Education Minister Jeff Johnson has yet to meet with Nhung Tran-Davies, the determined Calmar mother and family doctor who started up an on-line petition asking for Alison Redford’s government to bring back the conventional teaching of math to Alberta elementary students.

So far, more than 6,900 people have signed the petition, but Johnson has said the Redford government is not going to make any change right now to the province’s math curriculum. He’s also questioned the validity of the petition, saying that many of the thousands of parents and educators who signed it are not from Alberta.

Jerry Manegre, a former St. Albert city councillor, has now gone over the entire petition.

Manegre looked at the petition when it had 6,876 signatories and found that 89 per cent of the on-line signatures came from Albertans, ten per cent from Canadians in other provinces, with 0.5 per cent from other countries. “Within Alberta, 53 percent of the signatures came from the Greater Edmonton Area, 22% from the greater Calgary Area,” Manegre says.

At the time of Manegre’s count, that meant 6,112 Albertans had signed the petition, with 732 people from other parts of Canada and 32 from other countries.

In Calgary, 1169 had signed, with also 88 from Airdrie, 114 from Cochran, Chestermere, Langdon, Rocky View Crossfield and Beiseker. There was 82 from Lethbridge, 72 from Red Deer, 69 from Camrose, 69 from Grande Prairie, 67 from Fort McMurray, 64 Medicine Hat and many others from many other smaller towns across the province.

The petition has support from all over the province. If Alberta Education’s focus is to give Albertans the educational system they want, it’s fair to say that this is a lot of people to ignore.

Johnson recently wrote a letter to Tran-Davies, thanking her for her timely and valuable input, and again spelling out that changes to Alberta’s math curriculum would not be coming out until March 2016, which is about the time of the next provincial election.

Johnson told Tran-Davies that he regretted not being able to see her due to his busy schedule, but noted she has been able to meet with “high-level officials in Education, including Deputy Minister Greg Bass and my Chief of Staff Thomas Bradley. I also understand that you have been speaking with Amaya Ortigosa, Team Leader, Mathematics K-9.”

I’ve met and and interviewed Johnson a number of times now, and while I’m now convinced he’s much too wedded to this unproven discovery learning approach, he’s also a sensible man with the best interests of students at heart.

With that in mind, it would do him well to sit down and listen to Tran-Davies, a sensible woman who also has the best interests of our students at heart.

As for Johnson’s concern that the petition was full of outsider signatures, that’s not the case.

Tran-Davies is solidly backed by the 6,112 (and counting) Albertans who signed this petition, an utterly massive number of signatures on a petition for this kind of public policy debate.

In all the consultations that Alberta Education did with Alberta parents on this new math curriculum (which was introduced in 2008-09), I wonder if the government had anywhere near this kind of parental input?

Will pro-discovery math parents start their own petition?

The new math curriculum is based on an extreme form of “discovery” or “inquiry-based” math. Under the new math, teachers are discouraged from teaching standard arithmetic such as times tables, vertical addition and subtraction, and long multiplication and division. Instead, they are required to teach a newly devised form of arithmetic characterized by multiple, convoluted strategies that work only for math operations up to two-digit numbers. For numbers over two digits, students are told to rely on calculators.

As an example, students used to be required to memorize that 4 x 6 = 24. Now, Alberta Education pushes the idea that such memorization is detrimental to understanding. Instead, students are required to figure out multiple different ways to get to the answer, for example, by drawing four sets of six objects; adding 6+6+6+6; adding 6+6 and then doubling it; or drawing a grid or table.

It’s of note that during this debate that I’ve asked many times in blog posts and on Twitter for parents who love this new discovery math approach to get in touch with me and tell their stories.

I’ve heard from thousands who now despise discovery math because of the harm its done to their children, so I’d love to hear from the thousands who love it.

Better yet, they should start up their own petition in favour of the discovery math curriculum.

So far, I’ve heard from about a dozen parents who like the direction the K to 6 math curriculum has gone. There’s no shortage of math consultants, education bureaucrats and principals who speak out in favour of it, but they’ve got a vested interest in doing so.

What would really turn my head and make me think again about my own opposition aren’t more unproven assertions about the benefits of discovery math from paid advocates from within the discovery education industry, but actual glowing testimonials and a major petition from hundreds or thousands of pro-discovery learning parents. I await their emails at dstaples@edmontonjournal.com and them starting up their own pro-discovery math petition at Change.org.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.